Fierce Defiance
by Interchangeable Dissonance
Summary: When Colonel Mustang is ordered to chose another person for his team, he chooses a problem instead. Fem!Ed, Fem!Al, Parental!Roy, Parental!Riza, mentions of abuse


**This is my first ever fanfiction, so I'm just testing out what things do. **

**Plot: Roy's team has been assigned to pick a new team member, so what happens when turns out that their pick is an 11-year-old (turning 12 on February 3) with a metal arm and attitude? **

**Disclaimer: I own nothing. If I did, Ed would be a girl, and she'd be the Empress of Xerxes. **

Roy's POV:

February 1st

11:45 AM

Central, Fuhrer's Office

"Colonel, I will give you a week, no more, no less, to find another alchemist skilled enough to become a State Alchemist, or I will assign one you one. I took it upon myself to find some for you. Now go and decide with you team who you want."

"Yes, sir."

Riza's POV:

February 1st

4:49 PM

Central, Roy's Office

"Have you all decided which one you want to look into?" Roy asked his crew.

"Yes, sir." The rest of them smiled.

"Tara Narmolanya!" Havoc yelled.

"What?" Breda asked.

"That's who I chose!" he grinned back.

"Look, Havoc, you only chose her for her breasts." Roy said, not impressed.

"Yup! Breda next!" Havoc smirked.

"I think…maybe this Izumi Curtis?" Breda muttered.

"Really? Fuery next."

"Firana Caswyntha. Riza?"

"Ed Elric. Roy?"

"Falman and I both agree with you, Riza. But is that really his name?"

"Looks like it. But is it male or female?" Breda asked, looking over the sheet. "Oh well, let's figure out when we go to collect him."

"Yes, sir."' Roy said sarcastically.

Roy's POV:

February 2nd

8:00 AM

Resembool

Here we are, in front of Ed Elric's house. The file said that he was 3 with no living relatives. A perfect choice. I walked to the door and knocked. A man in his 50s came to answer the door.

"Hello, are you Ed Elric?" I asked him.

"No, there's no Ed Elric in this house." he said.

"Could we come in?" Riza, ever tactful, asked.

"Um, no, sorry. I was just about to head out to work."

"Oh, okay." Breda said, giving the impression of a depressed child.

"Watch out for him." he murmured. I did a mental facepalm.

"So, you can go now!" he snapped.

"One second," I said. "I never got your name."

"I'm Gildis Hawthorne." he snarled. "Now go."

"Bye!" we all called.

"Get into the car and drive around the block." I said. "Then get out."

We snuck around the grass. Just then, we heard the sound of glass breaking, and a child's scream.

Riza ran out with arms outstretched under a shadow. The shadow dropped into her arms, and it was a child, who couldn't have been older than 10! The child looked scared half-to-death. He had dirty blonde hair and dull gold eyes. His skin was unnaturally pale and he was shaking.

"Al!" another voice yelled down. I looked up. A boy with gold hair and eyes was looking down from the broken window. Highlighted against the sun as he was, he looked like an angel. Albeit a very dirty angel, but an angel nonetheless. Then he ducked and a fist sped through the window, quickly followed by a body. The body of Gildis Hawthorne.

"Hey! Is Al okay?" broke through the silence. We all looked up at him. The boy swung his leg around the side of the window, and we got a better look at him. He was wearing a turtleneck, gloves, sweatpants, and boots. He swung his foot down onto the next window's ledge, and dropped to the ground. He started to run towards us, but then grew pale and started to shake. Only then did I realize that I had no idea where Hawthorne was, and judging from the looks on the other's faces, they did too.

Then we felt the alchemy.

Ed's POV:

February 2nd

8:4 AM

Resembool

Okay, what's happening? Al and I were going around like normal, avoiding Mr. Hawthorne. Then we heard knocking and talking outside, then the door slammed and Mr. Hawthorne came upstairs to punish us (albeit earlier than usual), so there wasn't enough time to push Al out of the way. He went right out the window. I swear my heart stopped. Luckily, those odd uniform-wearing people were down there in time to catch him. Mr. Hawthorne all but completely threw himself out the window. I jumped down and Mr. Hawthorne crept around them, created an alchemy circle and transmuted the air around the stranger's hands and legs into chains to bind them.

"So, it was you the entire time, was it not?" Mr. H. screamed into Al's face, growing redder by the second. He picked Al up and threw him over by me. Me, being the older one, naturally stepped in front of Al.

Roy's POV:

February 2nd

8:50 AM

The older kid threw himself in front of Al. He had a look of fierce defiance on his face. The younger one just seemed scared.

Ed's POV:

Like hell I'm going to let Al get hurt again! I just need to keep Al away now. Mr. H. snarled and jumped forward.

Damn, he's fast!

*insert epic fight scene* (A/N: this is my first time trying something like this, bear with me.)

I ducked away from his fist and tried to punch him in the stomach. He caught my fist and pulled it up near his shoulder, in which I promptly kicked him in the crotch. I could hear the strange men in front of me gasp and wince in pain. While Mr. H. was doubled over, I tried to yank his arms away from his chest and move around him, but apparently that's what he was planning for me to do. When I was by his hip, he spun around and grabbed me by the neck with a knife.

Roy's POV:

February 2nd

9:00 AM

Resembool

The fight ended before it really started. The kid did well, but Hawthorne had probably trained for years. He now had the kid's arms behind his back with a knife to his throat. And looking back at things, I'd guess the boy was Ed. Hawthorne quickly snapped Ed on the back of the neck, and he fell unconscious.

Soon we all were.

(A/N: I have no idea about the neck-makes-people-unconscious thing, so don't try this at home!)

Ed's POV:

February 2

?

?

_"Ed!" I hear my name and jerk my head up. In front of me is that monster that Winter, Al, and I created. I see Truth's wide grin as the doors close in on me. I hear crying, and I realize I'm missing an arm, Winter is missing one of his ribs, and Al's missing his leg knee-down. I see Al, crouching by the side, crying. I see my mother, perfect again. I see her shift into the monster she looked like. _

_ "You couldn't save her!" pain exploded in my ribs._

_ "You should have been the one to die!" Pain in my left leg, in my head, in my knees, in my wrist. I see his face. Gildis Hawthorne. The man who stayed behind to pick up the pieces after Dad left. The man who made Al's life hell. Yeah, he was fine when Mom was still alive. He was fine before she died. But after that, he started drinking. All hopes that he would comfort Al went out the window. He never left the house and eventually forces us to stop leaving as well. He burned anything he could find that suggested Mom was dead. He thought that she left us like Dad did, and that we were to blame. It started one day, after school: I was late to come home one day and he snapped. When I arrived, he had Al pinned against a wall with a fist drawn back. I pushed Al out of the way and took the blow myself. It seemed to go on forever. When it ended, there wasn't a part of me that didn't hurt. _

_ "You shouldn't have been bon this way! You shouldn't have been born…"_

"A GIRL!" a voice broke through my consciousness. It sounded like it was underwater.

"Yes, Mr. Mustang. We're both girls." Wait, was that Al? I saw a blob of skin and yellow.

"Sister's waking up!" Yeah, that's Al. I groaned and lifted my hands up to my eyes. Pain began to flare in my left shoulder so I left it down. I blinked a couple times and I realized we were in a cage.


End file.
